Darren Burke, Communities reporter

Shamed child sex shame footballer Adam Johnson has launched a second appeal to be freed from a Doncaster prison after his first was rejected.

Faye Johnson, the sister of the disgraced footballer, said a second appeal application against his conviction and sentence has been launched after the first was kicked out earlier this month.

Johnson was jailed for six years in March after being found guilty of engaging in sexual activity with a 15-year-old girl. He is currently serving his sentence at Doncaster's HMP Moorland.

The former Sunderland footballer, who turned 29 in prison last Thursday, had previously admitted kissing the underage girl and grooming her.

He was cleared of another count of sexual activity with a child during his trial at Bradford Crown Court .

Faye Johnson posted the update on the legal battle on Twitter.

She said: “The renewal of Adam’s appeal documents have been lodged today.”

A spokesman for the Court of Appeal confirmed it had received appeal documents.

Speaking last week following the judge’s rejection of the first bid for leave to appeal, London-based Burton Copeland Solicitors said: “We have received notification that Adam Johnson’s applications for leave to appeal against his conviction and sentence have been refused by the Single Judge. He is obviously disappointed.

“Having carefully considered all of the information, we will be lodging renewed applications on conviction and sentence in the coming days.”